Rough Draft of Social Media

Rough Draft of Social Media

Since the invention of social media, the number of children and adolescents using social media platforms has immensely grown. Some of the social media platforms mostly used by children and adolescents include Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, and Instagram. According to a research conducted by the Pew Research Centre in 2015, a large number of children and adolescents had access to smartphones with 92% of the children reporting that they logged in to any social media platform daily. The African-American children and adolescents were the largest percentage of teens who had access to smartphones, then followed by the Whites and, finally, Hispanic. The report revealed that 85% of African-American teens owned a smartphone, while 71% of White and Hispanic owning a smartphone. The wide access to smartphones had contributed to the increased use of social media amongst children and adolescents. The negative impacts of social media in children and adolescents are vivid as it has become a tool for bringing social problems, isolation, and destruction of effective interactions (Stokes & Price, 2017).

African-American children and adolescents frequently used social media platforms as compared to White and Hispanic. Additionally, the report revealed that there was diversification in the use of social media among children and adolescents, although facebook remained the platform with the highest subscription of 71%. 71% of the children and adolescents used various social media platforms, and 22% used only a single social media platform. Out of the 22%, the majority used Facebook, Google Plus, Instagram, and Snapchat, respectively (King, 2019). The majority of those who used Facebook were male children and adolescents, while a larger subscription on Instagram were female teens. Social, economic status also contributed to the use of social media among children and adolescents, and the irony of this was that children and adolescents from the lower-class revealed that they used Facebook the most, with a larger percentage when compared to those from well-off families.

Children and adolescents from rich families revealed that they frequently used Twitter and Snapchat as compared to their friends from low-class families. The advancement in social media platforms has led to various ways of communication and exchange of information between the youth and the adolescents. Harris & McCabe (2017), states that the most convenient and popular used method of communication was the use of texts, with 90% revealing that they send texts every single day and some even acknowledged that they send and received at least 30 texts in a single day. The texts were sent and received either through Whatsapp or Kik. African-American and Hispanics led in sending and receiving texts. Out of the children and adolescents, girls used social media platforms mostly for the exchange of information and photographs while boys engaged more in the playing of games.

In recent research that was conducted early 2018 by the Pew Research Center, the percentage of children and adolescents using social media was 51%. The increased use of social media amongst children and adolescents had been attributed to a revolution in technology and access to smartphones. Pew Research Centre also revealed that 95% of the teens in the United States owned smartphones (Mehlhase & Anthony, 2019). When asked about the effects of social media in their lives, a larger percentage of the population revealed that the effects had neither been positive nor negative. The use of some social media platforms such as Twitter and Tumblr had increased while that of Facebook had declined, and in this report and similar to the one of 2015, children from the lower class were the ones who used Facebook mostly that those teens from rich families. In terms of use, a large number revealed that Snapchat and YouTube were the applications they checked in regularly.

The majority of those who said Facebook was their most preferred application was from the lower class. In terms of gender, girls acknowledged that they used Snapchat frequently while boys asserted that YouTube was they priority number one. Out of the girls who revealed that they used Snapchat regularly, the majority of them were Whites, while the blacks recommended Facebook as their most visited application. Similar to the 2015 report, 45 percent of the youth and adolescents revealed that the use of social media platforms had neither positive nor negative consequences in their lives, 31% revealed that social media positively impacted them while 24% acknowledged that they were negatively impacted (Marshall et.al. 2018). Those who revealed having been positively impacted leveled their argument in connectivity to their friends and family members. They revealed that they were able to communicate with their friends and family members, and also to identify and connect with new friends, thereby improving their social skills.

Additionally, others stated that social media platforms provided wide access to information and breaking news, and they were able to exchange ideas with other children and adolescents who shared similar interests. Consequently, they remained updated and improved their communication skills. Moreover, others concluded that social media platforms were a source of entertainment and provided opportunities to express themselves. Van der Schuur, Baumgartner & Sumter (2018), notes that a small portion argued that they were able to understand new and different things mostly through Google, and others were able to get support from colleagues. Apart from the use of smartphones, children and adolescents now have access to either laptop or desktop, and this is also attributed to the level of income and level of parent education. The majority of those who earn a laptop or desktop are from well-off families, or their parents have a higher level of education. In terms of gender, girls continue to dominate online platforms.

Social media platforms have become a tool for bringing social problems, isolation and destruction of effective interactions. One of the social problems include cyberbullying. Cyberbullying involves an individual or a group of individuals using social media communication and information to harass and threaten social media users by sending threatening messages or photographs. Cyberbullying may cause discomfort and lack of peace among children and adolescents, making them unable to concentrate on their academics and other life activities. Isolation may be a product of Facebook depression (Twenge & Campbell, 2018). Rejection and denial of contacts by peers are amongst the main causes of Facebook depression. First-time users of social media platforms are the ones likely to suffer from Facebook depression. Moreover, social media destructs effective relations among children and adolescents. Children and adolescents spent more time on social media platforms meaning that they may not get enough time to interact physically with friends and family members, and the result of this is poor relationships among family members and reduced interactions with people. Poor relationships with people may affect the real life of children and adolescents, and they may end up developing poor social skills. Consequently, poor social skills may limit the concept of social networking, which is a key survival technique for every individual (Stiglic & Viner, 2019).

References

Stokes, J., & Price, B. (2017). Social media, visual culture and contemporary identity. In 11th International Multi-Conference on Society, Cybernetics and Informatics, IMSCI 2017

King, K. (2019). Education, digital literacy and democracy: the case of Britain’s proposed ‘exit’from the European Union (Brexit). Asia Pacific Education Review, 20(2), 285-294.

Harris, K., & McCabe, A. (2017). Community Action and Social Media.

Mehlhase, S., & Anthony, K. (2019). Communicating ATLAS: adapting to an ever-changing media landscape. PoS, 012.

Marshall, T. C., Ferenczi, N., Lefringhausen, K., Hill, S., & Deng, J. (2018). Intellectual, narcissistic, or Machiavellian? How Twitter users differ from Facebook-only users, why they use Twitter, and what they tweet about. Psychology of Popular Media Culture.

Van der Schuur, W. A., Baumgartner, S. E., & Sumter, S. R. (2019). Social media use, social media stress, and sleep: Examining cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships in adolescents. Health communication

Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2018). Associations between screen time and lower psychological well-being among children and adolescents: Evidence from a population-based study. Preventive medicine reports.

Stiglic, N., & Viner, R. M. (2019). Effects of screentime on the health and well-being of children and adolescents: a systematic review of reviews. BMJ Open.